The Interior DIYer
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#DublinDesignNight 2016

Last Wednesday night saw Dublin’s second annual #DublinDesignNight as organised by Yelp and Image Interiors & Living make its way across the city centre. I was pretty excited as it was my first ‘night out’ since having Cora, so while I unfortunately didn’t get to visit every venue on the map, I tried my best to get to a good few places before hobbling to the bus [it can be tough to walk and stand for long periods of time after having a baby. Who knew?].

I first visited Designist, where everyone was greeted with a hot chocolate not-so-secretly-spiked with rum. If this is something you haven’t heard of or tried before, TRY IT. I may just be my new favourite hot winter drink. 

I picked up another of The Handmade Soap Company‘s candles. I bought their grapefruit and may chang candle a few months ago and loved it, so this time I picked up one of their sweet orange, basil and frankincense candles. I also picked up an adorable frog patterned Bandana Bib by Little Green Dot for little Cora [which I have yet to use because it’s far too cute]. 
From there, I quickly visited Appassionata, Irish Design Shop and Industry. All of which were packed so I didn’t stay long. I made one last stop at Article before heading home. I’ve had my eye on their swan mobile for a long time and these days I find that if I don’t get something I really like when I first see it, it’ll be gone the next time I check. So I grabbed one [seen below yet to be assembled] and think it’ll be perfect over Cora’s changing table / dresser to keep her entertained and slightly less wriggly. I also saw one of those old-school clip in letter board signs, but as it was a little more expensive, it would more so be a mini investment. Which usually means I think about it non-stop for a week then end up taking a trip into town especially to get it. We’ll see 😉

You can read my post on last year’s and first #DublinDesignNight here!
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2015 in review

The end of most years I’m not too keen on the idea of a roundup post. But if you make the mistake of scrolling through the past year of your blog, it’s near impossible to not pick some favourites to write about. I’ll try to keep this brief, so I’ve picked a handful of my favourite memories and projects from this year. 
2015’s game started strong with the completion of the Canadian man cave office I designed for my Broseph [above]. I really loved taking that theme and running with it. I still spot pieces I’d love to add to his office, but I really have to stop myself. I still have serious office envy.

We traveled near and slightly less near this year to Edinburgh, Scotland and San Sebastian, Spain [also Bilbao]. I love seeing new places and crossing new countries off my list, but I’m also not the best with traveling so I’m a bag of emotions at the best of times. Over the next year I’d love to visit Iceland, Netherlands, Poland and Japan, but we’ll see how far my nerves get me.

One of the biggest, most time consuming and monotonous projects I took on this year was conquering the disgusting yellowed doors and skirting boards throughout our entire rental and repainting them white. It may not seem like a big deal, but to us it made a huge change [you should really see the before pics]. I’m still deliriously happy with how much it’s changed our home. Projects like this don’t make an impression on anyone else but you. I like those changes though. When people eventually go “Oh! I just noticed the ugly yellow is gone!” Clean and fresh and not gross.

My mind was fairly blown this year by the people that got in contact to work alongside with. I teamed up with Woodies and created a huge variety of DIY tutorials for them, I became Image Interiors & Living’s DIY Expert, conducted interviews and corresponding blog posts for Colortrend paint twice, wrote for the Irish Independent and the Sunday Times, created some fun posts for Harvey Norman’s blog and partnered with Wayfair.co.uk again for some Star Wars goodness to name a few [all of these and more can be found here].

But if I’m honest, my favourite projects this year [and TBH, always and forever] are projects where I upcycled and updated otherwise unwanted or unloved pieces. For example, the upcycled vacuum cord pendant light in our spare bedroom and the updated faux marble bedside tables in our bedroom. Things like that will always be my passion. That’s what gets me really excited and wanting to scream from the roof tops that style and the contents of your home don’t have to come with a hefty price tag. And sometimes, no price tag at all [if you wanna see all my DIYs, check out my DIY Tab]. And if you’re stumped about upcycling or upgrading a piece and want some help, get in contact! I would just die to help other people out with making the most with what’s already available. I’m hoping 2016 will be the year everyone becomes a bit more conscious of where their stuff comes from and at what cost. 
At the very least, I hope you had a lovely 2015. Even if not all of it was perfect, it got you to where you are now. And from me, a massive thank you. If you’re reading this or ever read any of my blog posts, thank you. I know it won’t be translated fairly well through a screen, but it really means a lot to me xx
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Rebrandiversary – what’s in a name

It’s kinda hard to believe one year ago I made the leap to rebrand my blog. I say rebrand as if my website is an actual thing that’s taken seriously, but nevertheless it’s been a year since that little change and I can say it was possibly the best change I made around here. Before ‘The Interior DIYer’ my blog was called ‘Hydrangea Girl’. I know it was the right decision to change it because that last sentence makes me cringe to no end [if you’re particularly bored you can read why I changed the name here].

In the year since changing the name of my blog I’ve been offered some amazing opportunities. I’m not saying it’s down to the name change, but within the past year I became Woodie’s DIY guest blogger, was asked to jump on board as Image Interiors & Living’s DIY Expert, conducted interviews at the spring and autumn Colourtrend Interior Design Forum and wrote for a number of bloggers and brands; with Harvey Norman’s blog being one of the more recent. It’s mad! It could be coincidence and I’m not saying such brands wouldn’t have worked with me beforehand, but I mean come awn. I think having the name ‘The Interior DIYer’ helped a little. It’s what it says on the tin.

Hydrangea Girl will always be how I started and I’m not turning my back on the name I picked quickly one morning when I first started this blog. Robert recently wrote on a card to me “you’ll always be my Hydrangea Girl” [insert ugly crying here]. I don’t think I could forget it if I wanted! 
So if you’re thinking of changing the name of your brand or your site, my advice? …